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Integration of Bite and Text100 Asia to create new regional powerhouse

August 6, 2014

Wednesday, 6 August 2014, Hong Kong and Sydney – Next Fifteen Communications Group yesterday announced a proposed global reorganisation bringing together Text100 and Bite in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The newly combined Asia business, operating under the Text100 brand, will form an approximately 300-strong integrated communications agency with an expanded presence in Mainland China, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.

Anne Costello, currently Text100 regional director for APAC, and Paul Mottram, currently APAC executive vice president at Bite will report into Aedhmar Hynes, Text100’s global chief executive officer (CEO) and serve as regional co-directors during the integration. The integration of Text100 and Bite is intended to take place in the September-December timeframe.

With enterprise and consumer technology communications at the core, the merged firm also has expertise in the corporate, financial, telecommunications, healthcare and consumer sectors, and offers industry-leading social media and digital marketing capabilities. The new Text100 will represent a combined client list including Blackberry, Cisco, IBM, Lenovo and VMware in the technology field; Expedia, Rakuten, Tencent, and TripAdvisor in e-commerce; corporate clients such as DHL, Schneider Electric, Standard Chartered and SWIFT; Lupin and the Max Bupa group in healthcare; as well as household names such as Beats by Dr Dre, Cadbury, Haagen-Dazs, Hong Kong Disneyland, Jawbone, Maruti Suzuki, Peroni and Qatar Airlines among many consumer brands.

“Combining these two great businesses in Asia creates a world-class regional agency with improved capabilities in each of the markets in which we do business,” said Tim Dyson, Next15 CEO. “With comparatively little overlap in the current businesses, this integration will strengthen our client offering across multiple sectors, provide greater career opportunities for our people and take us a big step closer to achieving our integrated communications goals.”

Both Bite and Text100 have made considerable investments in developing their integrated communications capabilities. The combined company will offer clients a full suite of creative, web, app development, digital marketing, analytics and search services to complement its core media and influencer relations offerings.

“Client demand for integrated communications is only going to grow in APAC,” said Aedhmar Hynes, CEO of Text100. “Bringing Bite and Text100 together enables us to double down on our investments to date. We can offer a more complete set of integrated services to our clients to help them engage today’s always-on, always-connected consumers and business decision-makers.”

David Ketchum, Bite’s APAC president and founder of Upstream Asia will leave the business after a transition period.

“David has created an amazing business in Asia, first as Upstream Asia, and as Bite over the last five years. His vision and entrepreneurialism have been instrumental in not only building our business in the region, but also in accelerating the adoption of integrated, digital marketing as a whole,” said Tim.

Text100’s first APAC office was established in India in 1996. Text100 APAC now comprises 15 offices and 14 licensed partners. Bite established its APAC presence through the acquisition of regional independent agency Upstream Asia in 2009. Both Text100 and Bite have been recognised as leaders in the region with Text100 winning more than 10 awards in the last two years including: PRWeek Awards Asia for best B2B campaigns in 2013 and 2014, best technology campaign 2013, and a SABRE Award for best B2B campaign in 2013. Bite in APAC has been recognised as both mid-size agency of the year by Campaign Asia, and technology agency of the year by The Holmes Report in 2013.

About Text100

We are the I.D.E.A. agency. We help our clients understand what matters to their audiences and create integrated stories to participate in conversations that inspire action. As a global communications consultancy, we use our I.D.E.A. consulting process to develop audience-focused campaigns that are insightful, creative, impactful and focus on digital environments as well as traditional media and influencers. We have a global staff of more than 500 and a direct presence in 30 cities worldwide.

We work with many of the world’s elite brands and industry pioneers in technology, telco, healthcare, travel and tourism, automotive and energy all of whom engage Text100 to think differently and to be innovative in today’s fast moving communications world. Our client roster includes IBM, Skype, Cisco, MTV, Vodafone, PayPal, British Airways, Lenovo, and SanDisk. Our Text Factor makes us different and has been praised around the world. We have been recognized as the leading Digital Consultancy in APAC, the Best Midsize Agency to Work For in the US, and one of the UK’s Best Small Companies.

With 14 locations around the world, Bite, a Next Fifteen Group company, is an integrated marketing communications consultancy with a proven methodology that helps clients develop differentiated positions, build digital footprints and win in the marketplace. Our business- and tech-savvy communication professionals work with companies who are innovating in their fields, disrupting markets and changing the world.